Studies in animals and plants suggest that Cryptochromes play a pivotal role in the generation and maintenance of circadian rhythms . In corals they are part of the mechanism that triggers coordinated spawning for a few nights after a full moon in the spring. Cytochromes are also involved in magnetic orientation of birds during migration
and essential for the ability of fruit flies to sense magnetic fields.

The genes coding for two Cryptochromes, CRY1 and CRY2, are found on in many species - including in humans on chromosomes 12 and 11.

References

External links

website of Dr. Steven M. Reppert

website of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign